Peary's photographs: Capturing "the frozen plain"

Robert Edwin Peary, the noted polar explorer, wrote in 1898 that there were only three things to see in Arctic Greenland: "the infinite expanse of the frozen plain, the infinite dome of the cold blue sky, and the cold white sun, - nothing but these."

Nevertheless, during his lifetime of Arctic exploration, Peary accumulated an unsurpassed collection of photographs meticulously documenting this "wasteland." Glaciers, icebergs, seals and polar bears, whaling ships, native peoples, his expeditionary colleagues, his wife and himself - all were recorded by his specially designed Eastman Kodak camera.

More than 500 of. these photographs have been purchased by Dartmouth for its exceptional Stefansson Collection on polar exploration. They document Peary's Greenland explorations from 1886 to 1909, from his earliest expedition to his last attempt on the North Pole. Many of the photographs include marginal notes written in Peary's own hand, and the collection also contains original sketches and maps drawn by Peary.

An explorer, ethnographer, historian, scientist, engineer, and artist, Peary first became interested in the Arctic in 1885, when by chance he picked up a book on Greenland in a bookstore in Washington. He decided he must see "what the truth was of this great mysterious interior." The following year, after arranging a leave from the Navy, he attempted to cross Greenland and reached about 100 miles inland.

From this beginning, Peary went on to revolutionize the techniques of polar exploration. He was one of the first proponents. of traveling in parties of two or three, instead of dozens, and of camping without a tent or sleeping bag.

Peary's photographs are a major addition to Dartmouth's polar collection. "We are now much stronger in quantity and quality," said manuscripts curator Philip Cronenwett. "Peary is one of those overwhelming figures in Arctic exploration."

The purchase of the photographs was made possible by the Friends of Baker Library and the Stefansson Memorial Fund. According to Stanley Brown '67, chief of special collections and curator of rare books at Baker, the library became aware of the availability of the photographs one Friday morning in September. The Baker administration quickly met and decided to purchase the photographs - and to do so immediately, for often such items are announced and sold the same day. On the afternoon of that same Friday, Dartmouth acquired the collection for $12,500.

The photographs now lie in neat piles in the basement of Baker, where they are being catalogued and identified. That tedious job of matching names to faces and locations to landscapes has been greatly facilitated by the authoritative holdings of the Stefansson Collection.

Vilhjalmur Stefansson, also an Arctic explorer and polar librarian, transferred his immense collection to Dartmouth in 1951 and shortly thereafter it was purchased by Baker. Stefansson's passion for collecting books and manuscripts on Arctic topics was legendary. In the 1940s his polar library was the largest in the world and the transfer of his collection to Hanover took three trips by trailer truck.

Peary and Stefansson were acquaintances and in their time were two of the most eminent experts on the Arctic. The addition of Peary's material makes even more important the College's already notable Stefansson Collection. Presently, the collection includes over 5,000 books, between 10,000 and 15,000 photographs, 32 feet of vertical files containing notes and correspondence, and 310 linear feet of manuscript collections. Only four or five institutions in the world have polar collections that equal or surpass it.

This autographed picture of a parka-clad Pearynow rests in Baker's archives, part of a recently-acquired collection of the polar explorer's works.